Ron Liepert Almost Guaranteed To Win MP Seat, Says Pollster

CBC

CP

Ron Liepert, who recently defeated incumbent Rob Anders in the Calgary Signal Hill Conservative nomination, is all but guaranteed to win a seat in the House of Commons in 2015, says a Calgary pollster.

Liepert trounced six-term incumbent Anders in a controversial race on Saturday to stand for election next year. Given how the riding has voted in the past, Bruce Cameron says it's extremely likely Liepert will be heading to Ottawa in 2015.

"Probably about 99.5 percent, I would think," said Cameron, a pollster with Return on Insight. "That riding, traditionally, always votes Conservative and Ron Liepert is a popular guy in that riding — he's represented it provincially as well."

New federal riding divisions created the Calgary Signal Hill riding.

Anders, who had represented Calgary West for 17 years, had to re-seek the Tory nomination in order to have a chance at re-election.

Now having lost, Anders will remain MP for Calgary West until the next election.

It's not yet clear whether he will rule out running for another Tory nomination in another riding.

Cameron says Anders has had a long political career and has defeated some prominent Albertans during that time — including former premier Alison Redford and former Calgary mayor Dave Bronconnier.

In light of that, he says Liepert and his team should be feeling good about their win.

"There was a long line of very good politicians who took on Anders and lost," he said.